In using all of the below, focus on whats valuable to your customer before focusing on whats valuable to you. The variable as to whether your successful in using these tips will lay in both the value of the content & its positioning. Please feel free to shoot me a direct mail with any questions. These are my own opinions, and what i've found to be successful in my restaurants.

1.Leverage user generated content

Incentivising your customers to create content for you presents a number of benefits. Firstly, it can help ensure a constant stream of fresh content to use. Additionally, as guests see restaurants reward creators by using their photos & tagging those users in their posts, they’re further incentivised to create more & give permission for others to do the same. A simple way to do this is to ensure food & drinks are aesthetically interesting, and that your venue whether by its interior, unique service style or otherwise, gives people a reason to take their phone out.

2. Develop micro-influencer campaigns

Invite local people with a relevant following to participate in campaigns with you, giving clear instruction & setting metrics by which to measure the success of the exercise. This creates the capacity to double down on the content created by the most effective people, and ensures you don’t just give away “free stuff!” Running campaigns as opposed to singular posts equals potential for genuine relationships with influencers & an ongoing stream of fresh content & engagement with their audience.

3. Build community around valuable content

Give your community, and would be community, content that meets at the intersection of your offering & their interest. If you have a health-focused brand, you could offer content that educates them on ways they can take care of their health at home, or share places they can visit nearby that are relevant. This not only cements your position as an authority in the market, but equally builds trust & loyalty without asking for something in return.

4. Utilise search features to hack conversations

“Butting in” on conversations where the topic is relevant to your restaurant is a great way to raise awareness of your brand. Contributing to a conversation, adding opinion, facts or knowledge, can help foster a position of relevance & expertise around a topic that’s being discussed, and help make you visible to a new audience. An easily actionable example of this is on Twitter. If it’s pancake day, for example, a simple search for “pancake day” in the search bar will bring up a host of conversation, to which you can reply to tweets & inject with your own content.

5. Document the process

Content can be expensive to produce, and difficult to come up with. A simple way to help you share more, and make your restaurant more accessible, is to document what’s already going on. This might be a meeting on menu development, or inside a staff training event, shared on Instagram story or via a LinkedIn article. This type of content helps to humanise your brand & involve your community.